I have been search the forums and Google for close to an hour trying to understand the mysteries of the acronyms as they apply to exhaust systems.

Test pipes, down pipes, resonated/non resonated, cat back,hfc and on and on and on. If and when i decided to change out my exhaust system how the h*** do i make heads out of all this stuff

Fast Intentions has been suggested to me for its non raspy sound...Can you teach me so i can do a better job of researching on what route to take for a system....Thanks.

 

Test pipe = Empty Pipe that replaces your cat
Downpipe = The section of pipe that the headers run into before the cat
Resonated = To quiet your exhaust
Catback = From the Cat (catalytic converter) back
hfc= high flow cat

 

Tx Al...That part i did manage to figure out. Where im lost is how one goes about putting a sysyem together...

Do i use test pipes/no test pipes--- or HFC ? Do i just go with a better cat back system..How do the resonated pipes play into this...Thats where im going with all of this...I hope ive un clouded myself ..or just made it worse for you guys......

 

Dont worry, everyone was a noob at one point in time :P
it all depends on what you want to go for, power? sound? looks?
An engine works like you breathing, if its hard for your to exhale you dont perform to well, the easier it is to breath the better you perform, with exhaust it can get quite loud and annoying, that is where resonators come in to quiet things down. Just poke around the forums and see what people like and say about systems, what kind of gains they get and how they like the sound. Id also recomend going to a meet in your area and actually hear how others exhaust sound, you can listen to all the youtube videos you want but will only be hearing your computer speakers and they wont give you a true idea of the sound.

 

Yeah true that statement about being a noob. I've asked all the the same questions MX and I think I have a pretty comfortable grasp of what you're asking for. All I can speak for is the stillen. I really, REALLY hovered on the motordyne exhaust because of its modular format but I was "talked out of it" quite convincingly. Stillen, for all that people say about them, do produce a pretty decent exhaust- and enough of the guys in here that I knew and trusted had the Stillen and it suited their purposes very well- way above the requirements I had at the time and still within the grasp of what I need now. I have the catback exhaust, as well as their HFCs. As well, I have similar intake mods to you and in fact to add to that the z tube and filter as we discussed. IF you go that route before I get home with someone else's parts or go new... you will have the same configuration I went with Stillen.

I was a bit surprised that it was a little on the raspy side- just a hint in some of the lower RPMs. After that... from about 3000 up it was a monster and sounded great. I took a look at some cermamic coated Berk HFCs that were said to eliminate rasp- not 100 percent clear on how it accomplished that... never really looked it up and didn't really care- all I wanted to do was get rid of the lower order rasp.
My recommendation for you knowing overall what your goals are at this point would be to look into an opportunity for a used true dual catback of some description with some HFCs. If you go used on it you'll save a boatload of cash- but access might be a bit of an issue on the island- shipping is going to kill you no matter what you do. Exhausts are big, heavy items! I have no complaints about my stillen (except the slight rasp) and that is the only one I have experience with.

I'd definitely do some extra research on the ceramic coated HFCs and Berks are as good a place to start looking as any. I'd keep my eyes on the my350z marketplace too.. probably more over there.

Don't look at Headers- I don't think you'd want that anyway. Resonated test pipes are going to smell in such a way that I don't think your performance objectives would warrant. Plus if I recall you had underground parking- argh!

In addition to all those mods, nothing is going to tie it all together like a good tune... And what I'm seeing so far with Osiris / Uprev has been impressive provided we can find someone around who knows how to tune it.

 

A down pipe is non existent in our NA system, the pipe off the header is actually the catalytic converter.

Down pipes are the pipe that comes off the back of a turbo.

Our system goes Headers-catalytic converters-Y pipe-tail pipes/mufflers.

So a complete cat back system eliminates the Y pipe section.

For maximum performance I recommend getting Hi flow cats and a catback exhaust, for my money i would go with Fast Intentions for everything. i have a Stillen cat back it is a nice set up but Karma had a fast intentions cat back the sound was amazing and i had FI resonated test pipes they were a quality piece.

 

Hmmmm... Duly noted!

 

Thank you gentlemen for the information...Its all clear (as mud ) now....This should help me understand searching the posts for hfc and cat back...Again thanks...Oh by the way..I love my new plenum spacer.

 

I don't remember what kind of exhaust are available, but if u see OE Y-pipe changed to a signle, it sure will be loud. Resonated would give u a low tone with less raspy but not as loud. If u are thinking of changing the cats into a test pipe, it would smell bad and emission test would be a problem plus police officer could tow your car if he fines out.

Kcc